Friday "Tribal" Cheese April 30, 2010

The funny thing about techno was how hard it tried to be so many different things, in the rush to “stay ahead” (ostensibly so, you know, they could “keep it real” and thus not “sell out” – yeah, THAT worked well). So from the goofy candy rave, we got “Intelligent” Dance Music, Jungle, Ambient, etc etc etc…

One of the ones that I always enjoyed, yet always found a bit goofy, was “Tribal Techno”. It was a pretty loose definition, and all it really came down to was random appropriation of chants, drumming, and other cultural traditions, rarely without even bothering to figure out what it was that they were randomly tossing into the mix. Leftfield, however, just got an acquaintance to speak total gibberish. They went on record as stating as much, simply because they didn’t want to lift anything from anyone, and they wanted something original.

Funny thing is, it’s still a good song.